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Big Pun f/ Fat Joe “Twinz (Deep Cover ‘98)” (1998)

Producer: Dr. Dre

Album: Capital Punishment

Label: Loud/Terror Squad

Fat Joe: “I knew I had to do a song with Pun on his album. I also knew the world was bigger than New York, so we had to do a track that I knew they would play on the West Coast. When Snoop first came out, and him and Dr. Dre did that ‘Deep Cover,’ that was the hardest shit. And nobody had fucked with it.

“So I said, ‘Yo Pun, let’s go back and forth on this bitch so I can introduce you to the game.’ So we sat down and wrote it. Back and forth, we’re going in. Hard. We wrote it together.

The ‘Dead in the middle of Little Italy’ rhyme wasn’t even a rhyme. Pun used to play around and say [that tongue twister], just like he used to walk around going, ‘Packin’ the Mac in the back of the Ac, packin’ the Mac in the back of the Ac.’ These were like jokes to him.

“I ain’t bug out when he first said the ‘Dead in the middle of Little Italy...’ rhyme. That wasn’t even a rhyme. He used to play around and say [that tongue twister], just like he used to walk around going, ‘Packin’ the Mac in the back of the Ac, packin’ the Mac in the back of the Ac.’ These were like jokes to him.

“I had to argue with him to put ‘Dead in the middle of Little Italy...’ in the song. I was like, ‘That’s the hardest shit on earth.’ He was like, ‘Are you crazy? That’s a fuckin’ joke. Niggas will laugh at me. Are you serious?’ Then he did it, and it was the illest shit.

“Snoop gave us his blessing and came and did the ‘Deep Cover’ video. And no disrespect, no one can ever say anything about that song. That shit is a body. Get the white sheets out. There’s no way around it. That’s a historic track. Legendary forever.”